The Placeholders by Lynda Wolters

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The Placeholders by Lynda Wolters is officially out now. I have to admit when I first saw the cover, I became intrigued.

Synopsis:

The book follows middle-aged Serenade ‘Sera’ Kincaid. She was living her best life until she lost it all: stepkids, half her share of the earnings, car, house, and her husband—all to a younger woman. Now, she is trying to figure out what to do while drinking out of plastic cups. She scrolls through dating apps to occupy her time in the seedy motel she’s staying at. She’s lonely and wants to find someone who isn’t a killer to spend time with.

But as she starts to go through the guys on the app, Carolyn, her boss, and BFF advise’s her to find a friend with benefits instead of wasting her time. The idea combined with Zach fits this idea, and Sera is sold. But just when she starts to feel like her old self and things are going too well with Zach, life takes a turn, and everything comes crashing down. Will Sera be able to pull herself together and unravel the lies before it’s too late? Find out when you read The Placeholder.

I also had the chance to catch up with Author Lynda Wolters and chat all about her latest book! I’m so excited to chat with you!

Lynda, welcome! Tell us, what inspired you to write The Placeholder and bring to life Sera?

The Placeholder, while a work of fiction, has a modicum of truth to it in that I understand how daunting and sometimes awful trying to date in one’s 40s can be. As a voracious reader, everything I read in women’s fiction seems to be written for the young and beautiful. Nearly everything turns out where a girl meets a boy, they fall in love (after an exasperating few chapters of showing how wrong they think they are for each other and in which the reader can skip the next twenty pages and poof, the two are in bed together – his perfectly chiseled body against her equally firm one) and then how it all ends tied in a neat bow. That isn’t life on so many levels. I wanted Sera to show readers a more raw, truer look at life in the middle ages as a single woman; I wanted Sera to get ugly, snot-nosed, crazy-headed, lost, and real.

Did you have a favorite part of crafting The Placeholder?

I enjoyed writing Carolyn’s part in its entirety. I liked her spunk and her sass. I liked that she could call her friend out, smack her with reality, and hold her hand when she was broken. Carolyn is tough and a good example of what it takes to be a friend; a true friend is not for the weak.

The Placeholder by Lynda Wolters

Genre: Fiction

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Buy this Book: Amazon

Who was the most challenging character to write? Sera, the main character?

At times I felt like too much of me was coming out of her. Trying to write a fictional character using things I knew while not telling my own story was a weird dynamic. At times, I wondered who had lived the scenes, Sera or me (she became very real to me). It was difficult to show how such a talented, educated person could be so foolish in her personal life. In the end, however, I think the essence of Sera shined throughout The Placeholder in that she wanted to be loved and to love, something we all want.

Are any scenes in The Placeholder based on actual things that occurred to you?

To some degree, there is a snippet of a truism to each scene. Whether it is stretched, added to, mashed together, or made up, for the most part, there’s something real to all of it. For example, I did go on a 4-day rafting trip through Hells Canyon without knowing anyone. The rest of that scene, well… And I did fly to Seattle on a friendship date for a weekend. The rest of that scene, well… And the bicycle guy who was a total drunk; that was two different people mashed together, exaggerated and filled in to create one person, one scene (one of the guys did have a kegerator installed in place of his dishwasher, and he did drink that much!). Another very large part of me is written about in The Placeholder, but it would be a complete spoiler if I mentioned it. That being said, you can check out my website to learn about that spoiler — after you read the book 😉

What is it you hope readers take away from The Placeholder?

I hope readers do not stop with just how awful the choices Sera made but dive deeper and see how easily she spiraled and how desperate she was for love. It’s easy to be judgmental, to find filth and disgust when we haven’t lived someone else’s life; i.e., those who have never been jilted never felt anguish over losing everything never felt desperate for love.

I hope that readers realize that nothing, not education, affluence, or status, surpasses the need to fill the void of one’s loneliness. And, I hope that Carolyn, the main character’s sidekick, is a reminder to all of us to be there for our friends, keep them in line, have the tough conversations, call them out, hold their hand, and support them. I hope everyone is a Carolyn and has a Carolyn. I hope readers appreciate those in their lives that love them and whom they love.